Mid-Term Break

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Mid-Term Break is an incredibly sad poem. Mid term break is basically about a little boy, who was actually Seamus Heaney's brother, who was sadly killed by a speeding car. Seamus Heaney describes in the poem of what he did that day when he's younger brother was killed.

The stanza begins with the "morning" in line one, but it is two o'clock in line three, showing that hours have passed in waiting.

The second stanza begins with the image of Heaney's father "crying". Heaney's father appears to be a strong man of few words, so having him crying causes a powerful emotion in the reader. Heaney skilfully takes the reader with him as he enters the house (showing he was scared) through the porch as we meet his father; "Big Jim Evans"; the baby in its pram; the old men gathered in the room; and finally Heaney's mother coughing out "angry tearless sighs", which show that she was hiding her true emotions. The little brother of Seamus Heaney was hit on his head, as it says the ambulance arrived at 10 o'clock, with the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
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We learn in the sixth stanza that Heaney hadn't seen his brother for six weeks having been "away at school", which suggests he went to a boarding school. The words "paler now", hang at the end of the stanza on line 18, causing a sad pause before the sentence continues and describes how little changed in appearance from when the boy was alive and dead, the big difference is his paler colour and his "poppy bruise".

The final line stands out of the rest of the poem. Almost every word is special so that the reader must ...

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